Top executives behind World of Tanks have been accused of extremist actitivites by Russian authorities over their support of Ukraine, Russian state media has reported.
The owner of World of Tanks maker Wargaming and the boss of the game’s separate Russian operator Lesta Games have been threatened, and Russian media reports that Lesta Games’ owner has has seen his stake in his company seized by the government as a result.
Development on World of Tanks, as well as its various spin-offs, was split in two following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was at this time that Wargaming publicly stated it had pulled out of Russia, with its offices in Minsk, Moscow and St Petersburg continuing on separately under the Lesta Games banner.
Now, two separate World of Tanks developers and two separate versions of the game exist – though the Russian government does not appear to be making a distinction between them. This is despite the fact that the main World of Tanks is no longer available in Russia, and the Russian version – now referred to as Mir Tankov – is made entirely separately.